This is a weblog for those living in the Avonside area and and anyone else looking for information or news on earthquake assessment, rebuilding and related matters.

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Monday, May 7, 2012

CERA - Red Zone workshops Q & As

At the various CERA Red Zone workshops a great deal of time was spent on
recording residents' questions. The most significant ones were answered (more or
less well, depending upon the calibre of the industry representatives attending)
at the end of the evening, with CERA undertaking to find answers to all of the
questions and make them available.

CERA now have a web page, Red zone community workshops,
where the Q & As from the first workshops have been uploaded. The web page ishere.

So far there is information for:

Kaiapoi workshop - 8 February 2012

Christchurch workshops 10-20 October 2011

Some of the stuff consists of basic question to which the answer is so
generic (or weasel worded) nothing is gained or at best is only half answered.
Perhaps CERA could invite community input to ensure earnest and essential
questions are better answered.

Other questions, while also basic, elicit useful answers, such as these
insurance ones from the Kaiapoi workshop:

Can I request my file? - Under The Privacy Act 1993, you are
entitled to request any information your insurer holds about you. If there is
specific information you would like, please ask your insurer for this as this
can be given to you more quickly than your entire file.

Why is information not transparent between client and insurance
companies? - Your claims case manager should be able to give you all the
information you need to know about your claim. If there is something you would
like to know they are the best people to speak to.

Why are reports not released to clients? - Most insurance
companies will share the full scope of works and costings with you at the time
of offer. If this is not automatically sent to you, speak to your claims case
manager.

NOTE: if your insurance company will not release the information you
request, you do not have to use their internal complaints mechanism to complain.
Advise them, instead, that you will take the matter up with the Privacy
Commissioner. If you find this prospect intimidating, just go straight to the
Privacy Commissioner.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner exists to help with these
sorts of problems. Their main website is here. The information about making a complaint is here (in some
browsers you need to scroll down a bit).